The present invention relates to rigid inflatable boats ("R.I.B.'s") and, more particularly, to an improved construction of a modular rigid inflatable aquatic vessel which will reduce the time and cost of assembly of the hull and deck parts to form the bottom module; and which will greatly facilitate assembly, disassembly, and storage of the boat structure while retaining most, if not all, of the advantages of heretofore proposed structures of this type. In addition, the structure of the invention will provide greater design flexibility in that the shape and number of inflatable elements can be varied and the structural characteristics of the deck/hull assembly can be varied in accordance with the needs of the user.
A number of inflatable aquatic vessels have been proposed in this art and they have been developed for use in Military, commercial and recreational applications. For example, others have disclosed the provision of inflatable structures around and about the periphery of a rigid hull or rigid hull portion. The complex-shaped inflatable structure or structures are air-containing vessels which, typically, are made of supported rubber or unsupported plastic film with mechanical fasteners securing it or them to a rigid structure or adhesively secured thereto. Most mechanical fastenings, however, such as screws, bolts, rivets, eyes, grommets, lashings, lacings, etc. concentrate stress between the rigid and flexible hull portions at points, and thus increase the probability of failure of the material and/or the fastening structure at these points of attachment.
Other inflatable boat structures have been proposed by me in earlier U.S. Patents, cited below, wherein the inflatable portions of the boat are encased within shrouds so as to increase the durability or versatility of the rigid inflatable boat and to facilitate assembly and disassembly of the portions of the structure. The inclusion of shrouds with boltropes further provides a line rather than points of attachment thereby further increasing the flexibility and utility of the design. One construction, disclosed to my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,413, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference, involves the use of an inflatable bladder or a plurality of such bladders inside a shroud and arranged around and above the periphery of a rigid bottom module. The shroud may be removably attached to the rigid bottom module by means of a boltrope, as disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,497, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference. Thus, the resulting aquatic vessel is modular. Yet another modular rigid inflatable boat is disclosed in my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,792, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.
Thus, in these structures, the rigid bottom portion is one module, the shroud is another module, and the bladder or bladders is or are another module or modules. The bladders may be attached and/or positioned by provision on or through the shroud, or on or through the rigid bottom module. All the products made according to the aforementioned disclosures of mine are advantageous. That is not to say, however, that an improvement thereof is not possible and indeed, the present invention constitutes an improvement of my prior rigid inflatable aquatic vessel structures.
Conventional, all-rigid, fiberglass boats are typically or often assembled from hull and deck parts which have been molded separately, then joined. The bottoms of certain R.I.B.'s have been made in this manner. In these conventional vessels, the deck part and the hull part are joined together about the periphery of the rigid portion at what is termed a hull-to-deck joint. The hull-to-deck joint is perhaps the most critical and time consuming step in assembly of a rigid boat structure because this joint must be watertight and, because this joint may be exposed, must be a neat, finished joint or concealed by a finish part for aesthetic or chafe resistant reasons. The hull-to-deck joint is typically made by mechanical fasteners or adhesives or both.
It would be desirable to eliminate the hull-to-deck joint described above in view of the preciseness with which this joint must be made and the required skilled labor and long man-hours required for this aspect of the hull/deck assembly.
A further consideration is that primary and reserve buoyancy aft are desirable, not only because of the weight of the engine and the operator of the boat which are typically aft, but because other people or items within the boat may be aft on occasions. Traditionally, such buoyancy has been provided by adding length or beam to the buoyant means aft. It would be desirable to provide such aft buoyancy by the addition of a lightweight inflatable member. Heretofore, however, inflatable boats having an inflatable member across the transom have been disadvantageous as the water does not break away at the stern of such boat when it is underway, but rather, tends to curl up and around the afterside of the inflatable member.
It would therefore be desirable to provide buoyancy aft to prevent swamping over the transom and to increase the payload of the boat while enabling water to break away at the back of the boat, thereby preventing the heretofore experienced curling of water at and up the stern of the boat.